Fans Urged to Rally Behind The Chemical Brothers After BDS Supporter Roger Waters Calls on British Electro Duo to Cancel Israel Show

An entertainment industry advocacy organization called on fans to rally behind famed British electro duo The Chemical Brothers as they face pressure by anti-Israel activists, including former Pink Floyd bassist Roger Waters, to cancel their upcoming concert in the Jewish state.

“We need YOU to write messages of support to English electronic music duo the Chemical Brothers,” the group, Creative Community for Peace (CCFP), posted on Facebook on Tuesday.

Waters recently joined thousands of performers who signed an open letter by Artists for Palestine UK, demanding that The Chemical Brothers — Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands — back out of their Tel Aviv show, to express solidarity with the BDS movement.

The letter says, “Your recording company, Virgin EMI, may tell you that playing Tel Aviv on November 12 is a cool thing to do. But Tel Aviv’s hipster vibe is a bubble on the surface of a very deep security state that drove out half the indigenous Palestinian population in 1948 and has no intention of letting their descendants back in. If you go to Tel Aviv, your presence will be used by the Israeli authorities to reassure their citizens that all’s right with the world and nobody really cares that the Palestinians are suffering… Please don’t go.”

In addition to the letter, more than 7,000 people signed a petition asking The Chemical Brothers to boycott Israel. The petition accuses Israel of “severe violations of international law,” and claims that the Jewish state uses culture as “a form of propaganda to whitewash and justify its regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid over the oppressed Palestinian people.”

The petition also says, “Artists who perform in Israel are actually taking part in whitewashing the occupation and apartheid. When international artists, such as the Chemical Brothers, perform at Israeli cultural venues and institutions, they help to create the false impression that Israel is a ‘normal’ country just like any other.”

CCFP’s Communications and Project Coordinator, Tara Khoshbin, told The Algemeiner on Wednesday that the Chemical Brothers are “just the latest in a long list of artists to receive massive pressure by supporters of BDS.” She added, “Many artists who choose to perform in Israel are bombarded by hundreds or thousands of anti-Israel messages, very often containing misinformation and distortions which we believe dampen hope for rational discourse and a positive way forward.”

The Chemical Brothers have not responded to the petition or letter as of yet. Tickets remain on sale for their Tel Aviv show.